Heavens Within Earth

Ave, Goodness. Sometimes being a magician sucks. Since I began all of this prayer and work for communion with the HGA, I've taken some rough rolls of the dice. Things have arisen that are not only tests of character, but seem to be decision-making tests.....as if I am determining who I am, and being forced to make certain decisions, instead of being shaped by the tides. Thing is, it isn't all super pleasant. I've been forced through a series of life-issues to make decisions and take stands about things that matter-  I am usually a laid back kind of gent, but after certain events this weekend, I've been pulled very strongly toward the center. I've had to step outside and beyond what were once my moral bounds. I've had to leave behind a certain milk-water niceness that is not serving me well. That is not to say that I've become a cruel person; only that I've been overly hesitant to exert my own will if it inconveniences others. This is a weak, imbalanc...

Ave, I've been striving actively to develop the connection with my HGA-and have experienced some interesting understandings. Firstly, that one's development does not necessarily fit into the nice ordered tracks set out by an Order's curriculum. I know this is obvious, but the stair-step nature of the grade system-which should look more like a  pool, and less like a road, in my opinion-can close off and prevent accurate understanding of what's going on in one's life and magical practice.  It really has come to the front for me lately, as my actual practice has outpaced my "official" grade level. Not in all ways-there are times when I've had to backtrack and re-approach energies balanced in a previous Grade for new understanding. None of the energies within us exist in a vaccuum, and as one grows, old lessons need to be dusted off and re-approached to prevent imbalance.  Again, I know this is obvious to those of us who are adept at magic, but a begin...

Ave Fraters et Sorors, Here is the Air Board. I'll post the Water and Fire when they're completed-I hope the day finds you all well! In LVX, AIT

Ave Fraters et Sorors, I sat down after vibrating all of the incantations, and then making my formal invitation to and Invocation of NANTA. Saw a plain, with a dark, starry sky. The quality of the light was that of just before complete sunset-there was a thin ribbon of light wrapping the peaks of blue-purple mountains in the distance. The sky itself began as orange-purple at the mountain peaks, and darkened almost immediately to a deep black from which stars shone.  NANTA stood before me, and there was no mistaking her/it. It was huge, so large that I couldn't quite perceive it-I would focus on it and see parts of it, but it seemed the actual shapes of the Angel were beyond me. It was a huge, towering thing. It was as if I were a 2 dimensional entity trying to perceive something that was 3 dimensional. NANTA spoke to me, and it's voice was solid and very cold. I asked it what it's nature was, and it said simply "form." I was expecting it to say that I couldn...

Ave Fraters et Sorors, Once again, Theurgy has changed my life for the better. My conversation and connection with BITOM has resulted in a very specific correction in my life-that of career direction and life-focus. I've always thrived as a creative person...but as I've grown older (and frankly abused the Fiery energies, miss-spending them with embarrassing abandon) I've found that use of my skills and creative powers has fallen off to almost null-my passion for Magic is the only thing that kept that dull fire lit. Before my work with the Water forces in Practicus I was also very insensitive...I didn't sense/feel enough of what was going on to notice and understand what was happening. Where once I burst with ideas and toiled to manifest them on this plane (which is a creative desire rooted in Elemental Fire), now they remained in Yesod, lacking the Fiery component necessary to energize them and bring them into existence. Nothing is done in a vacuum-misusing any of the...

Wow.wow.wow. I performed the invocation after preparing the temple, and vibrating the first, second, and sixth calls. I raised energy before doing so, and I'm glad I did. The incantations were strong, and I felt the change in mental "tuning" almost immediately. I sat before the crystal, held the tablet whilst touching BITOM, and requested an audience. At first I saw a red diamond, and then some abstraction which I can't put into words properly. The diamond became a red angel with a sword, which rose up and pierced a sun; after this a shower of orange and red fell from the sun downward. Very interesting-I need to meditate upon this for meaning. I vibrated BITOM again, and was whisked along a stream of red energy with golden sparks within. This energy was BITOM. I was traveling with the angel around what appeared to be the cosmos, into and around all things, passing through and invigorating/enlivening all it contacted. I asked him what his nature was ,and he told me I ...

Ave, Thanks to a youth misspent almost entirely by reading fantasy and sfi-novels, my internal idea of what a wand should look like and the reality of the Golden-Dawn style wands are quite different. In the GD the wands are quite plain and direct in their symbolism...the only wand that has struck me as "beautiful" is the Lotus wand. The rest of them make sense to my symbologically but just plain do not speak my soul artistically. They feel like tools, plain and simple. That isn't necessarily bad....I'm just of the opinion that the perception of something as being full of beauty makes it easier to sacred-ize it, to coin a horrible term. I've made a few for use in hoodoo/spirit work and energy work that I'd like to share (wands were not used frequently in traditional Hoodoo...but this is a living tradition,a birthright of sorts..... and hoodoo is mine to do with as I will. So, now there are Wands. You're welcome.) Hoodoo has always had a practical Spirit...